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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] verb forms - Isaiah 56:6-7 was dying you shall die

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  • From: "stoneyb" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] verb forms - Isaiah 56:6-7 was dying you shall die
  • Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:05:25 -0500

Isaac writes
"Language, spontaneously developed, extended by consensus (no books,
no schools), must be inherently very very simple and systematic. This
should be the primary axiom of Linguistics, I think."

Isaac, I invite you to substitute, say, "Society" and "Sociology" ... or
"Agriculture" and "Agronomy" ... or "Religion" and "Theology" for
"Language" and "Linguistics" in these sentences. Homo faber, it seems to
me, has generally evolved his tools by trial and error, snatching after
the manner of Levi-Strauss' bricoleur at whatever resources happenstance
presents and not troubling himself too much about elegance and
simplicity. The "primary axiom" is likelier to be the great engineering
mantra "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."


Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood










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